zeoman4.5's review: Ruination

In Transformers RID the Decepticons were created from Autobot protoforms that had crash landed on earth and were stolen by the Predacons. They scanned earthen army vehicles and were infused with Megatron's Evil essence and were brought into battle against the Autobots, a problem which Optimus Prime would blame himself for. The created bots were MegaOctane, Armorhide, Rollbar, Rotor, Movor,and Scourge. The first five could combine into the Autobot thrashing Ultimate Warrior Ruination, and Scourge was an evil clone of Optimus. The Deceticons would replace the Predacons as the enemies of the Autobots and eventually wage a final war for control of Fortress Maximus with Galvatron.

The Decepticons are repainted versions of the Combaticons from G1. The diferences are in the color, name and the fact that the chest plates are no longer metal. MegaOctane was Onslaught, Armorhide was Brawl, Movor was Blastoff, Rollbar was Swindle and Rotor was Vortex. Their combined form was called Bruiticus.

That being said I will do a brief review of each Decepticon; then one of Ruination as a whole.

Armorhide Vehicle Mode

Armorhide...I'm starting with him just because I'd like to go in alphabetical order. Anyway, Armor hide is a WWII style tank. The overall detail level on him is kind of low.His colours are not my favorite, sky blue with black camo spots. This just isn't good for him, he stands out like a Throttlebot in a BeastWars collection. I thought the point was to blend in. NO tank looks like this, none!!! With that said, he is nice in this mode. He does look like a tank and can function well in this mode. He is kind of small and can't really be viewed as a threat to anything but the likes of spychangers. His main tank cannon rotates 360 degrees. He also has a large secondary gun which can be attached onto the back of his vehicle to give him some extra fire power and range, since it can move upwards unlike the main gun.

Armorhide Robot Mode

After a simple transformation Armorhide is combat-ready in his bad
blue robot mode. His articulation is limited to shoulder rotation. He looks nice but isn't very playable. The colours are the same with the exception of the upper legs and head which are metallic gray. His face has a mouth plate and a visor. Not very detailed, hard to tell it's a head without the orange visor. His head doubles as a combination connector so any detail would probably be ruined. He is extremely durable. The only thing on him I could get to break was the handle of his gun, which got stuck in his hand. A good toy that can take a beating. Overall he is fun to play with and has a good vehicle mode despite color.

MegaOctane Vehicle Mode

MegaOctane is the leader of the group. I could write a whole review just for him but since I'm short of time I'll just go through the main points. MegaOctane is a Military truck armed with dual cannons mounted on its back. The color scheme is perfect for his vehicle mode. The truck is dark green and covered in brown and green camo spots, his cannon is orange at the base and gray on the tube of the cannon. The wheels of the truck roll well, which is important. His cannon can be moved upwards for attacking larger enemies. The robot mode gun can be attached on to the cannon as well. He has a secondary form of a transport vehicle which can be achieved by attaching the included ramp piece and attaching the cannon on the robot mode head.

MegaOctane Robot Mode

Mega Octane is quite tall for a deluxe size figure. He overshadows many of the RID figures. He looks good, mostly due to the gray torso with the green chest plate attached, and the cool green with camo on the remainder of his body. His head can turn and is very detailed although like most of his men he has a face plate and visor. Other than the head his arms are articulated at the shoulders and can rotate as well as move outward and inward. His orange hand gun and back mounted cannon look good but do nothing. MegaOctane looks intimidating and evil, he could hold his own against many Autobots with his size and great weapons.

Movor Vehicle Mode

Movor is probably my personal favorite of the group. He changes into a Space Shuttle. The shuttle is realistically coloured white and black. He has working landing gear, although it can't be folded up for flight it still works well. The design is great but not at all correct on size. Once again, for the vehicle mode, he is the wrong size, like Armorhide. Still he looks good and functions well. He has two side mounted laser guns which can also be attached in robot mode. This is, in my opinion the best vehicle mode of the group.

Movor Robot Mode

Movor is very interesting in robot mode. He retains the same colours, but he has an orange chest plate and what looks like a black belt. The nose of the shuttle turns into his arms and hands. The head is small, once again used as a connector. It is just white on the helmet and purple on the face plate and visor. The shoulders are ball and socket jointed and the wrists can rotate as well. The legs are connected and have no movement. He has a hand gun which looks cool and dual leg mounted guns which although not practical are good to have for extra help against the larger Autobots.

Rollbar Vehicle Mode

Rollbar is a WWII style jeep. He is green and has black chairs and a silver windshield. He functions well but lacks detail, like all of them. He has a large gun which can be attached on the jeep to use like a turret. The vehicle mode is bland and really boring.

Rollbar Robot Mode

Rollbar in robot mode is lame. He is still green, but he has a orange chest plate, like Movor. He is the only one of the group with a real face. His eyes look like green sunglasses. He is just plain awful. The color is so boring. His articulation just kills him. He is articulated in the middle of his arms. They don't even stick out far enough away from his body to move right. I can't continue, he is just too bad a figure(KD's Note: Remember that he was made a good 20 years ago?).

Rotor Vehicle Mode

Rotor is an old school Helicopter. He is blue and red. Really looks good with nice blending of colours and a good shape. Once more I wish he were bigger. He has a face mounted gun and two rear mounted cannons. His rotors spin well and he has working landing gear. A relief from Rollbar.

Rotor Robot Mode

In bot mode Rotor is just like the others. Well balanced in colour and articulated in the shoulders only. Honestly he isn't bad, but I just can't help but think his arms are to big. He can use his face mounted gun can be used as a pistol, and the rear guns as arm guns. Nice.

Ruination

Finally the reason why I started this review. Ruination Awakens!!! Ruination is the combined form of the five individual Decepticon robots into one large Decepticon Warrior. MegaOctane is the body, and the others can serve as either arms or legs. The body parts for combination are all gray. A larger chest plate attached to MegaOctane can create the body of Ruination. Finally an Optimus Prime-like helmet finishes the mighty Ruination. All of the individual guns can be combined to create the two blasters for Ruination. The gray color is contrary to the show color, which was yellow, so the toy doesn't look show accurate. The arms and legs are attached by the heads of the smaller bots or by extendable pegs. The arms are shoulder articulated and wrist articulation is there, thanks to connector pegs. The legs are not articulated, but they hold him up well, if given the right figures.

The show utilized two specific combinations. One where the land based bots were the legs and the airborne as the arms, and one
which was vice versa. In the Fighter mode (ArmorHide and Rollbar as arms)he looks very good and is most balanced in this form. In Flight Mode (Movor and Rotor as Arms)he also looks good but falls over a lot. The Flight Mode arms are much better functioning than the Fighter Mode arms. He is very fun to play with, considering that he is the largest bad guy in RID. Making him stomp around and thrash some Autobots totally makes it worthwhile to get Rollbar.

Transformation: 5. No figure is hard but to do them all takes time and its not easy to get the pegs into the shoulders to make Ruination.Durability: 10. The figures are very strong and won't break under normal play circumstances.Price: 6. The price to get them originally was about $45, nowadays you can get them for very cheap online.Fun: 10. The fun of a Combiner and the 5 together makes the 10. Individually they are about 5-7 except Rollbar who is a 2.Overall: 8. A great combiner and 5 nice toys. I just wish they were taller and Rollbar was someone else. Although they lack any features, I still think they're great.